Dr R Malik asks Malcolm Rivers about his Mum. Rivers’ Mum was a whore, locking him in motel rooms while she worked. Rivers stands accused of murdering six residents of the Lakeworth Apartments on May 10th — Rivers’ birthday — four years earlier.
Assistant District Attorney, Greg, tells District Attorney, Gary, there’s a midnight hearing in the Rivers case. The Defence found a diary misfiled in evidence.
It’s a stormy night. Larry’s drinking alone, watching Wheel of Fortune behind the desk of a motel’s reception when George York bursts in carrying his wife, Alice.
Flashback to a burst tyre when George is driving his family. George finds it was a stiletto heel. Flashback to hooker, Paris, driving, fumbling behind her for her Zippo lighter. The suitcase blows open in the wind and clothes and a stiletto fly out.
While George fixes the tyre, Alice is hit by a limousine. Flashback to Ed driving Caroline Suzanne. Ed searches for her other phone battery, then hits Alice, who bounces off his windscreen.
Ed pulls into the motel. Larry’s phone isn’t working, but St Jude’s hospital has a 24-hr emergency, thirty miles east. Larry charges Caroline $30. She asks if the room’s nice, sliding a fifty across the counter. Larry says eight’s very cosy.
Lou and Ginny take Ed and Paris back to the motel, since Ed’s car fell into a run-off. Paris asks Larry if the motel’s still serving food. Larry’s hostile. Ed learns Alice didn’t pack a sewing kit.
Rhodes arrives, telling Larry he’s transporting prisoner, Robert Maine. Ed says he has someone who could use an ambulance. Rhodes’ radio fails, so Ed requests a needle and thread. Larry suggests trying the diner.
Ed’s stitches Alice’s neck. Larry opens ten. Maine is soon cuffed to the toilet. Rhodes compliments Ed’s stitch job. Alice’s pulse is shallow, but steady. They should keep her comfortable.
Caroline takes her phone outside, seeking a better signal. She’s attacked and blood spatters on the shower curtain she’s using for the rain. Ed finds Caroline’s severed head. Rhodes notices the key to ten. Maine’s escaped through a window.
At the midnight hearing, Judge Taylor wants to begin. The Defence Lawyer suggests waiting for Rivers. Taylor complains that the Justices have already called him in the middle of the night to review a case he’s already sat on and already decided. Taylor requests black coffee.
Ed announces Caroline Suzanne was murdered and Officer Rhodes’ convict has escaped. Ginny feels unsafe and marches to the door, then is comforted by husband, Lou.
Ed wants Larry to come with him to help look for Maine. Ed tells Paris to stay and keep everybody calm. Paris learns Ginny and Lou have been married for nine hours. Ginny marches to her room.
She tells Lou she’s not actually pregnant. She lied because Alison saw Lou at The Hawk with a girl. Lou says in the strongest terms that Alison likes messing with Ginny’s head.
Lou’s banging on the bathroom door subsides. Ginny investigates and sees the shadow of a knife-wielding person. She quickly climbs out a window. Ed, Rhodes and Larry arrive to find Lou dead.
Maine gains entry through a random window and, bizarrely, sees the motel he just escaped from. Ed and Rhodes overpower and restrain him.
Larry should watch Maine. Paris should watch Ginny. Larry isn’t comfortable with guard duty, although Maine’s unconscious and tied to a post.
Paris returns to her luggage. Ed asks what she’s doing. She asks him the same. He’s taking evidence photos. Paris says he doesn’t need to, there’s an active duty cop outside.
Ed says Rhodes just lost a convicted killer. Paris asks when Ed was born. Ed says May. Paris says Taurus, same as her. Ed was a cop in Los Angeles. There was a jumper. Pregnant, AIDS-infected, strung out, one of the doomed. Ed was trained to be optimistic.
But, he couldn’t think of one optimistic thing to say. So, the girl spread her arms and jumped. It badly affected Ed, so he filed for medical. He notices room key nine in Lou’s hands.
Ed asks Rhodes where the key from Caroline is. Then, Rhodes discovers Maine dead, a baseball bat deep in his throat. While acknowledging it’s his bat, Larry pleads innocence.
Rhodes finds room key eight and asks if it’s Larry’s. Larry accidentally drops a box containing cash and Caroline’s Gucci wallet. He admits he took the wallet, but only after Caroline died.
Larry immediately has a knife to Paris’s throat. She elbows him, they tussle and a frozen corpse falls onto her. Larry starts driving off in a truck, but accidentally kills George.
The court refused Rivers’ insanity plea. In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot execute a person who does not understand why he’s being put to death.
Rivers’ diaries contain entries made just before the murders — exhibiting spectacular changes in handwriting-style, tone, point of view. They’re the private thoughts of several different people.
There’s no universally efficacious treatment for Dissociative Identity Disorder. One attempts to move the patient towards integration. A folding of their fractured psyche.
Larry’s restrained, but gives his story. He went to Vegas the month before and lost everything. The motel was deserted, so he walked into the office and saw the manager dead.
Then, a salesman asked for a room. Larry took the thirty dollars and gave him a room. He put the body in the freezer, until family or someone else came along.
No-one came, just more guests. So, Larry checked them in, too. Paris and Ed say Larry’s story’s so unbelievable, it might be true. Ginny says a hundred years ago, the government moved some Indians there. The Indians all died of thirst.
Rhodes says no-one’s gonna move. If they do, he’ll shoot them. Ginny suggests all the guests are connected. Paris was going home to Florida. Larry was born in Florida, Polk County. Paris was born there. She asks which town. Larry says Mulberry. Paris says Frostproof.
Paris found an orange grove for sale on the Internet. Nine acres, 1,200 trees. Limes and oranges. According to the realtor, the soil needs a few tills, phosphorous, lanes need reeding, but it’s good land.
Alice passes away. Rhodes finds room key six under her bed. Paris asks where seven is. They reverse the truck and find room key seven in George’s pocket. Ed tells Paris she, Ginny and Timmy should drive away.
Ginny’s car explodes. Larry and Rhodes extinguish the flames, but there’s nobody inside. They then discover all the recent corpses have vanished.
Paris shouts what the hell do they want. She’s turning thirty soon and she just wants to grow oranges. Larry, Paris, Rhodes and Ed all realise they share the same birthday, the driver’s licence scans bear this out for the murder victims, also.
Ed says Ginny and Lou Isiana. Virginia and Louisiana. Caroline, Carolina. Paris Nevada. George York. Larry Washington. Rhodes, Rhode Island. Ed looks at a map of the country and says Ed Dakota.
Ed’s dressed like Malcolm Rivers. Malick asks where Ed’s been. Ed was driving an actress and they got stuck at a motel because of a storm. People started dying and their bodies vanished.
When faced with an intense trauma, a child’s mind may fracture into dissociated identities. Rivers developed Multiple Personality Syndrome. Edward is one of these personalities.
Ed smiles incredulously. He sees Rivers’ face in a reflection and asks in the strongest terms what they did to his face, asking why he’s tied-up and wrenching his restraints.
Malick tells Edward they were all created by Rivers as a child. Rivers is undergoing a medical treatment which forces all his identities to confront one another.
Malick says one of the personalities Rivers has met that night committed the murders four years earlier. He took control of Rivers’ body and released an unspeakable rage. In nineteen hours, Rivers will be executed unless Malick can convince Judge Taylor the killer is gone.
Ed feels rain on his hand, newly aware. Paris goes to Rhodes’s car. The radio’s destroyed. She finds a mugshot of Rhodes and a mugshot of Maine. Flashing back. Rhodes stabs a prison transport driver to death through the seat. Rhodes then dresses in the driver’s uniform.
Paris discovers the corpse in the boot and can’t find Ed or Larry. Rhodes demands the truck keys. Larry knocks Rhodes to the ground and says they should leave. Paris says Ed has the keys.
Rhodes kills Larry. Paris runs off and into Ed. Rhodes demands the truck keys. Rhodes and Ed fire at each other. Ed soon kills Rhodes. A dying Ed tells Paris he saw her in an orange grove.
Next morning, Paris is driving. Rivers is tranquil. Rivers’ body committed the murders, but the person inside did not. The destruction of ten identities happened in the past few hours.
Nine innocent, one guilty. The violence in Rivers is nullified. It’s the recommendation of the court that Rivers’ execution be stayed. Rivers will be transferred to state psychiatric services under the care of Dr Malick.
Paris drives through orange groves. She starts tilling the earth and finds room key one. Timmy’s scowling behind her. Rivers is twitchy. Timmy was apparently responsible for all the murders at the motel.
Malick asks Rivers what’s wrong. Timmy impatiently smacks his hand with a garden tool. He says “Whores don’t get a second chance”. Timmy attacks Paris and Rivers strangles Malick, next attacking the driver.
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away
Starring John Cusack. Ray Liotta. Amanda Peet. Rated 15. Dir James Mangold. Released in the UK 2003. Runtime 1hr 30mins
